[MD] Value and the Individual

[Platt Holden]

> [Arlo]:
> > Synthesize these two positions for me, Ham.
> > Do we not experience our "cosmic purpose"?

[Ham]
> No.  We "intuit it" if we believe it at all.  Clearly, many do not.

[Platt}
Morality seems to suffer the same fate. Clearly, many do not believe in  
a rational morality.

> > I don't know about my cosmic purpose but like
> > Steve Martin's character in "The Jerk" I found my
> > "special purpose" at an early age. About all I have to
> > say about that I said earlier to Ron,
> > "Thank God for the internet!"

[Ham] 
> Glad you found your special purpose via the Internet, but what, apart from
> arrogance, makes you think it's your "cosmic purpose"?

[Platt]
We must try to understand, Ham, that Hollywood and the Internet are modern 
temples of worship.  

> > What in the world does this have to do with a collectivist view?

[Ham] 
> I find that the post-modern, elitist, nihilistic concept of reality 
> invariably hangs on a collectivist view of mankind.

[Platt]
You nailed it, Ham. Stir in scientific authority and you have the brew for 
enslavement.

> > I get confused a lot. If collectivists and nihilists are
> > the same, were Jesus and his disciples nihilists?

[Ham] 
> This is a non-sequitor statement.  Collectivism as a social system didn't
> appear until Marx in the 19th century.  A dozen followers selected by a
> prophet doesn't constitute a collective, nor were the Hebrews of Judea
> nihilists, as you well know.

[Platt]
Right. Collectivism is a social system where man exists for the sake of the 
state. In practice the system has slaughtered millions -- a fact its modern 
proponents conveniently ignore while blaming the U.S., founded on the 
principle of individual rights, for all the world's ills.